Associated PressTom Izzo has Michigan State in its 13th consecutive NCAA Tournament.SPOKANE -- Saturday was a day of respect at Spokane Arena as the opposing coaches in Sunday’s two NCAA Tournament games spoke glowingly of one another.

On Sunday, Maryland will play Michigan State in a coaching matchup of accomplished veterans who each has a national title. Purdue will play Texas A&M in a game that pits young up-and-coming coaches who figure to have a chance to get their own titles some day.

And there’s a lesson in the resumes of all four that can be applied to the Oregon coaching search.Old school and accomplished

Let’s start with the veterans. Gary Williams is in his 22nd season at Maryland, and 33rd as a head coach. Tom Izzo is in his 15th season at Michigan State.

Both coaches have impressive records.

Williams had stints at American, Boston College and Ohio State, where he amassed 11 seasons of head coaching experience before he took the job at Maryland, his alma mater, in 1989. He is in his 14th NCAA Tournament with Maryland, and 17th overall. The highlight came in 2002, when with a team that included Juan Dixon and Steve Blake, the Terrapins won the national title.

At 65, Williams continues to hammer away in the tough Atlantic Coast Conference.

“We have been good friends for a while now,” Izzo said. “We played against each other a lot. I love his passion for the game and his intensity.”

Few coaches can match Izzo’s record at Michigan State, where he rose from assistant coach to take over the program in 1995, when his mentor, Jud Heathcote (who now lives in Spokane), retired.

Izzo, 55, has taken the Spartans to 13 consecutive NCAA Tournaments and five Final Fours, including a championship in 2000 and runner-up finish last season.

“I think that says it all,” Williams said. “To be able to do that -- that’s different players, all those things that go into creating a team that gets to the Final Four -- to be able to come back and do that on a consistent basis, I don’t think anybody’s done a better job in the country.”

Izzo says he and Williams share a belief in the way a program should be run.

“I think he does it the right way,” Izzo said. “I think as we all know, there’s a lot that goes on in college basketball, and I don’t think it’s what we do here, and I know it’s not what they do there. So consequently it’s called old school, new school or the right school.”Young and old school

Associated PressTexas A&M's Mark Turgeon and Purdue's Matt Painter coach against each other in the Missouri Valley League. The other game features Texas A&M’s Mark Turgeon, 45, who has risen up the coaching ranks after his five-year stint as an Oregon assistant, and Purdue’s Matt Painter, 39.

Turgeon, in his 12th season as a head coach, has taken the Aggies to the NCAA Tournament all three of his seasons at Texas A&M. Painter, in his fifth season at Purdue and sixth as a head coach, has the Boilermakers in their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament.

Their styles are remarkably similar on and off the court. Both favor physical man-to-man defense as a way to set the tone for the offense. Both are old-school, keep-your-man-in-front-of-you guys who have no interest in anything gimmicky.

“He and I would do anything just to stay in man and not play zone,” Turgeon said. “We’re a lot alike that way.”

They’re alike in other ways, too. Both are married with three children, and are considered down-to-Earth family guys.

And both are known to recruit character guys who can play in their systems and remain as down-to-Earth as their coaches.

“He does it the right way,” Painter said of Turgeon. “He recruits kids (who will) fit into his system and his personality.”

Their paths crossed in mid-major circles. Turgeon was head coach at Wichita State of the Missouri Valley Conference from 2000 to 2007. Painter worked at another MVC school, Southern Illinois, as assistant coach from 1999 to 2003, then as head coach during the 2003-04 season.

The experience gave both an appreciation of the mid-major upsets that have lit up this season’s NCAA Tournament.

“I know how hard it is at that level to get involved with good players, and then … how hard it is to get into the tournament,” Turgeon said. “But I will say this: Once you’re in, you’re much more relaxed at that level than you are with a BCS team. … I just remember being so relaxed and so calm when I was with Wichita State and how much fun it was to play in those games.”

Painter says mid-major players have chips on their shoulders that help them compete against players who were higher-ranked recruits.

“When you’re at a mid-major, you always have that edge,” Painter said. “Because you have a bunch of kids on your team that, for the most part, got turned down by the high major schools.”Resumes should just be the start

As Oregon begins its quest to find its next coach, the Spokane foursome of head coaches show one thing: there is no one way to excellence in coaching.

You can move from school to school before finding an ideal setting, like Williams. You can come out of the assistant ranks and establish a great record, like Izzo.

Or you can rise through the mid-major ranks into major conference coaches, like Painter and Turgeon.

Whoever makes the decision at Oregon will have to be wise enough to see what the end result could be, no matter what the current resume says.